And we thought BlackBerry 10’s launch would help revive its sinking image. In yet another blow to the former favorite smartphone of the corporate world, Home Depot is bidding goodbye to the BlackBerry and replacing it with Apple iPhone 4S. The company is set to procure 10,000 iPhone 4S smartphones for its store managers. Why this news is a bigger blow to BlackBerry is the fact that Home Depot preferred a more outdated iPhone 4S to the newer BlackBerry 10 handsets like the Z10 and Q10.
However, the 60,000 Motorola phones being used on the store floor will stay on for some more time. But store managers across the 2,252 retail outlets of Home Depot will get to junk their BlackBerrys in favor of the iPhone 4S.
Even though BlackBerry 10’s launch garnered a lot of positive attention and the company may have had things looking up for it, this transition away from the BlackBerry by the world’s fifth largest retailer could be seen as a setback for it. This news may have hit the company especially hard given that it is desperately hanging on to its corporate customers for sustenance and has been hoping that the BlackBerry 10 would turn things around for it.
But not everyone is throwing out the BlackBerry just yet. In December 2012, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency had decided to switch 17,600 employees from BlackBerry to Apple. But the agency decided to hold off and give the BlackBerry 10 a try before ending their arrangement with BlackBerry, making Apple miss out on a $2.1 million deal.
